A mostly-instrumental album by Christian hit-maker and two-time Grammy winner Michael W. Smith, FREEDOM seems intended as a soundtrack to a movie script that, as of yet, nobody has decided to shoot. It's a lush orchestral outpouring that betrays the influences of several contemporary film composers.

There are some quite lovely piano and string sequences, such as "The Giving," that sound like Randy Newman-style Americana, and Smith occasionally comes up with Celtic airs ("Hibernia") that recall James Horner's TITANIC score. Some of the concluding tracks such as "The Call" and "Free Man," however, are more rock oriented, with wordless choral vocals and drums, and with synths or electric guitars taking the melody lines; the latter is especially reminiscent of Mark Knopfler's scores for THE PRINCESS BRIDE and LOCAL HERO.

Michael Whitaker Smith is an American musician, who has charted in both contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when "Place in this World" hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.